Chechnya ambiguous to disbandment of "Vostok" and "Zapad"

People in Chechnya have differently perceived the news that the special battalions "Vostok" (East) and "Zapad" (West) subordinate to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff (GRU) of the Russian Ministry of Defence will be disbanded. Although many residents treated these subdivisions negatively enough, others believe that the battalions were dissolved to please President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov.

Aslambek Apaev, expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group for Northern Caucasus, says: "Be it 'Vostok' or 'Zapad', or any other military or militia subdivision deployed in the republic, all of them break human rights in some way or other. The 'heroism' of 'Vostok' fighters was officially made public this summer, when mass burials were excavated in the vicinity of the main battalion's base. I think that many human lives are on the heads of 'Zapad' fighters too. Militaries of these battalions quite often were involved in various unattractive matters."

In this context, the expert has recollected a recent case, when three "Zapad" servicemen were detained in Grozny for extorting money from one of local officials.

Mr Apaev has also reminded the story, when Sulim Yamadaev, ex-commander of the "Vostok", rushed, together with his people, into the office of one of St-Petersburg companies and beat up its director.

In his opinion, the decision to disband the battalions was correct.

"Recently, a lot has been spoken about reforming the Russian Armed Forces and the need to scale up the fighting capacity and mobility of our troops. At this background, I can't quite understand the reason for actual liquidation of the two most efficient special subdivisions, which have perfectly approved themselves in the recent war on Georgia. Why then not to disband the 'Sever' (North) and 'Yug' (South) special battalions of Internal Troops, also recruited from Chechens? What is the guilt of 'Zapad' and 'Vostok' fighters before their command and the country, whose honour they had defended by sacrificing their lives, to treat us now in this manner?" asked one of former militaries of the 'Vostok' battalion.

The international organization to protect journalists "Reporters without Borders" (RwB) has demanded from the Special Investigating Service of Armenia to close the case against Kristine Khanumyan, the editor of the website "ILur.am", who refused to disclose the source of information about abuse of power by Vardan Nadaryan, the police boss of the Shirak Region.

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has refused to open a criminal case on abuse of power by policemen from the Stavropol Territory, who conducted their special operation in Chechnya and killed Djambulat Dadaev. This was stated by Zaurbek Sadakhanov, the advocate of the Dadaev family.

In Yerevan, Narek Akopyan, a participant of the protest against the increase of electricity tariff, who was detained in June 2015, is accused of using violence against an authority. The prosecutor asks the court to sentence Akopyan to six months of freedom deprivation.

On July 21, advocates of Anna Gritsevich, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, and ecologist Vladimir Kimaev submitted a statement demanding to open a criminal case against Sochi policemen to the Investigating Division of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) for the Adler District of Sochi.